Barry Petchesky

A "global World Series," besides being redundant, is Bud Selig's latest bright idea to grow the game worldwide. It will also make us look bad.

Reports have the outgoing commish discussing a proposal to have the World Series champion play the Nippon Professional Baseball champion in an annual series. While a New York Yankees/Yomiuri Giants showdown sounds sexy, would you get so excited over a Ham Fighters/Cardinals series, or a Swallows/Diamondbacks matchup?

But forget all that. I'm not so sure we would win.

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It's lovely and quaint that we have a team in Toronto and call it the World Series. But it's good that way. It sounds important. We all know that Americans are the best at everything, and every other country is amateur by comparison. I liked it before the World Baseball Classic, when we all just knew this to be true, instead of being proved wrong twice by the Japanese teams. And that was in March, when our players have fresh legs.

Think American athletes will give their all once the season's over? The NFL's giving up involving players from their two best teams in the Pro Bowl because they can't convince anyone to give a crap in February. And if I know anything about Japanese stereotypes, it's that the NPB champs' professionalism and sense of honor will compel them to play hard.

Call me provincial, but I'm not ready to live in a world where none of our teams can hold a candle to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.